Now that you asked .. the "intel" in "10-bit HEVC support for recent Intel GPU generations"

I might be barking up the wrong tree .. that doesn't refer to Nvidia

I'll reinstall LibreELEC 8.0.1 and see if it's just the newer GTX 1050 video card that's done the vast improvement, I never though to test that out first as it was not supposed to have driver support .. the old video card might have been a bit

I'm thinking of getting onto the 4k 10bit train soon. I'm currently using Kodibuntu but since that is outdated I plan to update my HTPC to libreelec in the future. I'm trying to do some research into 4k 10bit playback and came across this post. I know I'm going to have to upgrade my box OR get a dedicated player like a Vero 4k.

I would prefer to just upgrade my HTPC and ideally just the video card. Is there anyway to do nvidia + linux and get 10bit playback? I do not want to do windows. I would prefer not to do a new cpu either.

I'm on LibreELEC 9 with Kodi 18 testbuilds by Milhouse for about two weeks now, many things aren't working as intended but HBR audio passthrough with Apollo Lake NUC6CAYH is definitely not a problem anymore, the patches seems to be included in kernel 4.14 so it's not a hardware problem.

So if you want to buy a Apollo Lake or Kaby Lake box now, go for it, support for HBR audio passthrough will come real soon, no need to wait for Gemini Lake.

I would prefer to just upgrade my HTPC and ideally just the video card. Is there anyway to do nvidia + linux and get 10bit playback? I do not want to do windows. I would prefer not to do a new cpu either.

Nvidia has not supported 10bit video on Linux from the beginning. It's only Windows which is allowed that honour. Why? I'm sure there is some logic behind that corporate decision by Nvidia.

Meanwhile, Intel has had its hiccups with BIOS's and drivers. Not to mention the flakey HDMI 2.0 solution they came up with in their hardware design. Even the next Intel generation is whispered not to have proper HDMI 2.0 support.

Nvidia has not supported 10bit video on Linux from the beginning. It's only Windows which is allowed that honour. Why? I'm sure there is some logic behind that corporate decision by Nvidia.

Meanwhile, Intel has had its hiccups with BIOS's and drivers. Not to mention the flakey HDMI 2.0 solution they came up with in their hardware design. Even the next Intel generation is whispered not to have proper HDMI 2.0 support.

So there is no way to do a DIY HTPC that does x265 and 10bit HDR?

I see you mentioned flaky HDMI 2.0 support from Intel. What does that exactly mean? I was looking at the NUC6CAYH. Seems to fit my bill as I can get that for about 120-130$ and should be strong enough to power my Kodi plus a few other things I have running on my box besides that.

Just read through this and it seems to be giving that box good reviews and makes it seem like exactly what I want.

I see you mentioned flaky HDMI 2.0 support from Intel. What does that exactly mean?

It means Intel used some DisplayPort-2-HDMI2.0 band aid, and video drivers in Linux (which LibreELEC runs on) can have a hard time adjusting to. Some motherboard manufacturers will implement their own hardware adjustments and again things will work just a little different. Of course Windows drivers will have more support from manufacturers, the Linux community is trying to catch up.

That generation of NUC supports 10-bit HEVC but fixes for HD audio passthrough are not in current LE releases, because while the available fixes work great on the latest generations of NUC they also break stuff on older generations. Things are resolved once the kernel bumps to 4.13 or so which is available in milhouse dev builds (future LE 9.0, although we are nowhere near alpha releases at the moment) and some other community images found in these forum. The LSPCON internal DP > HDMI design decision attracts pissy comments because it's taken Intel a huge amount of time to recognise and then fix the audio problem (more than a year).

That generation of NUC supports 10-bit HEVC but fixes for HD audio passthrough are not in current LE releases, because while the available fixes work great on the latest generations of NUC they also break stuff on older generations. Things are resolved once the kernel bumps to 4.13 or so which is available in milhouse dev builds (future LE 9.0, although we are nowhere near alpha releases at the moment) and some other community images found in these forum. The LSPCON internal DP > HDMI design decision attracts pissy comments because it's taken Intel a huge amount of time to recognise and then fix the audio problem (more than a year).

So if i were to get one of those NUC's and install one of the milhouse dev builds of LE, I will be able to do 10-bit HEVC to a compatible 4k tv?